A federal appeals panel delivered a major win for President Trump on Thursday, breathing new life into his effort to overturn the politically motivated conviction in Manhattan’s “hush money” case. The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ordered a lower court to take another look at Trump’s request to move the case to federal court, where he can argue that the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling demands his guilty verdict be thrown out.
Trump’s conviction last year was the product of a rigged trial orchestrated by partisan prosecutor Alvin Bragg and overseen by biased Judge Juan Merchan. Bragg turned what was essentially a minor bookkeeping matter into 34 felony counts, claiming Trump falsified business records to conceal a perfectly legal non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The jury — stacked with anti-Trump Democrats — was clearly intent on branding him a “convicted felon” to derail his return to the White House. Merchan later handed down an unconditional discharge, the lightest sentence possible, supposedly to avoid interfering with the presidency. But Trump is appealing the conviction in New York’s appellate court, arguing that the entire case was tainted by evidence the Supreme Court has since ruled off-limits.
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Judge Merchan’s conduct throughout the trial made his agenda painfully obvious. During sentencing, he repeatedly referred to Trump as “Mr. Trump” instead of “President Trump.” That wasn’t some innocent slip. It was a deliberate choice by a judge who happens to be a Biden donor, signaling that he cared more about delivering a political hit than impartial justice.
Even CNN legal analyst Elie Honig called the entire prosecution an “ill-conceived, unjustified mess.” No one has ever been charged for the actions that landed Trump in that courtroom. Falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor when it even gets prosecuted at all. But Bragg inflated it to a felony by claiming Trump had “intent” to commit another crime, without ever bothering to specify what that supposed crime was. This was a trial without a crime, so naturally it ended with a sentence without any real punishment.
The appellate judges made it clear they weren’t confident that U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein properly weighed the issues when he initially denied Trump’s motion. The panel pointed out that Hellerstein failed to consider whether evidence introduced at the state trial touched on immunized official acts, or whether presidential immunity fundamentally changed the nature of the prosecution. That’s a glaring oversight, and the appeals court wasn’t about to let it slide.
After the conviction, Trump moved to shift the case from state to federal court, citing the Supreme Court’s landmark immunity decision. Hellerstein rejected that request, claiming Trump failed to show good cause since the jury had already delivered its verdict. But the appeals panel wasn’t buying it. They sent the case back to Hellerstein with clear instructions to reconsider his ruling and actually address the weighty constitutional questions at stake.
The judges emphasized they weren’t taking sides on the ultimate outcome. They simply want the lower court to do its job properly and thoroughly evaluate Trump’s arguments. Whether that means additional briefs or a full hearing is up to Hellerstein, but the message is unmistakable: The first pass wasn’t good enough.
This latest development brings Trump one step closer to erasing this bogus conviction altogether. The appeals panel just handed him a significant opening, and the path to tossing this partisan witch hunt is getting closer by the day.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is still ongoing, and polls are now showing Americans are increasingly blaming the Democrats for this mess, and Democrats are on the verge of caving.
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